MONTREAL — Contributions made to Bob Rae’s failed bid to take over the leadership of the federal Liberal party in 2006 appear to have helped the RCMP connect the dots in part of their continuing investigation into alleged corruption of Canada Revenue Agency employees.

Documents filed in connection with Project Cloche describe how the RCMP came to believe that Delvex Consulting Group, a Quebec-based firm that advises companies on how to apply for research and development tax credits, is secretly owned by five men, including Francesco Bruno, 50, of Laval, head of a construction company who pleaded guilty to tax evasion in February, and three CRA employees who were fired in 2009 and 2010.

The documents do not allege any wrongdoing on Rae’s part.

They outline how political contributions made to him in November 2006 led investigators to suspect who the owners of Delvex are.

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“It is not our practice to comment on investigations,” Liberal Party director of communications Daniel Lauzon wrote in an email following requests for comment from Rae.

Project Cloche is an offshoot of the CRA investigation that produced tax evasion charges against Bruno as well as companies owned by construction magnate Tony Accurso.

According to the Quebec business registry, Delvex is solely owned by Marcello Furgiuele, brother of Adriano Furgiuele, a CRA employee who held the position of team leader at its Montreal offices until he was fired on Dec. 15, 2009.

Bruno admitted he used a numbered company to supply $2 million worth of fake invoices to Simard-Beaudry Construction Inc., a company controlled by Accurso.

The invoices, for goods or services that were never provided, were used to reduce Simard-Beaudry’s revenues and, in turn, the amount of taxes it owed.

Two of Accurso’s companies – Constructions Louisbourg Ltd. and Simard Beaudry – pleaded guilty to tax evasion late last year and were fined more than $4 million.

According to documents filed in connection with Project Cloche, the RCMP believes Delvex is secretly owned by the Furgiuele brothers, Bruno, Antonio Girardi, another CRA employee fired on Dec. 15, 2009, and Americo Comparelli, a CRA specialist in research and development credits until he was fired on Dec. 7, 2010.

If the allegation is true, it would mean that while they were employed by the revenue agency, Furgiuele, Girardi and Comparelli held an interest in a private company that advised companies, including at least three owned by Accurso, on how to file for tax credits that could reduce a company’s federal tax burden.

A computer seized from Adriano Furgiuele’s home on April 7, 2009 turned up a file that contained a Delvex service agreement to consult Accurso-owned companies on how to apply for research and development tax credits in 2007-08.

A search warrant executed in the same investigation turned up an email, sent by Marcello Furgiuele to Bruno on June 10, 2007. Attached to the email was a file including details about Delvex’s bank account and all of its transactions from Feb. 17, 2006 to June 8, 2007. The file attachment also contained an accounting table labelled “Delvex withdrawals and advances tracking sheet.”

The table included five columns, each identified by initials only, that recorded how five people invested $3,000 each in Delvex on Feb. 26, 2007. The RCMP believes the initials are a perfect match to the five men in question.

One reason why the RCMP came to its conclusion was based on another line in the accounting table titled “LPC contribution” with a $2,000 withdrawal from Delvex’s bank account noted in each column. The RCMP believes it has matched the initials to political contributions each of the five men made to the Liberal Party of Canada.

The Gazette has learned, through records kept on Elections Canada’s website, that all five men donated $2,000 to the Liberal Party in the final two weeks of November 2006 and asked that it be directed to Rae.

At the time, Rae was a serious contender in the Liberal leadership race that ended with the party choosing Stephane Dion as its leader.